“This report should be wake-up call to ministers. Hiking up university and college fees and excluding young people from the new higher minimum wage rate is not the way to build a fair and prosperous Britain. It is the blueprint for a lost generation,” said TUC general secretary, Frances O’Grady .

Getting on the housing ladder is becoming a distant dream

The UK’s deepening housing crisis centred in London isn’t new information to many but it certainly isn’t showing any sign of getting better, either.

And it’s young people that are coming off worst as house prices soar, a shortage of homes continues and landlords demand ever-increasing rents.

‘Britain’s getting a pay rise!’ exclaimed the jubilant right-wing press; failing to note the disparaged young people who missed out on the promotion.

For those grappling with mounting university debt and failing to find their way onto the property ladder this was little but a kick in the teeth. The divide highlighted by the report looks only set to worsen under the living wage, with research conducted by the Scottish parliamentary information centre finding that under 18’s will earn £6,500 less a year than over 25s in the same job.

We are becoming less tolerant of minorities, again

On a positive note, tolerance towards racial diversity and sexual orientation has improved according to the EHCR report.

However, it also found significant increases in hate crimes with an Islamophobic or antisemitic motive between 2008 and 2013. Unfortunately, since then the situation has worsened – with anti-Muslim attacks nearly quadrupling following the Charlie Hebdo massacre.

But it’s minority groups who stand alongside young people in bearing the brunt of the economic inequality, Sikhs suffered the biggest wage cut, losing £1.90 an hour and black peoples decreased by £1.20.
When Earnest Hemingway popularised the term a ‘lost generation’ he was referring to the generation which followed World War I – destined to be young, directionless and vanished.

Now, 100 years later, it seems today’s youth are re-discovering the writer’s term for themselves.